Empire Records (1995)

3/5

Empire Records is the kind of classic 90's movie that could never be made now. It acts silly for the sake of silliness, turns mature on a dime, then swerves back to insane. It doesn't fit a genre except the time period in which it was made. There are no words to describe this movie; just know that it is an experience. The story revolves around a young cadre of employees in a local record store about to be bought out by Music Town, the non-infringement version of Tower Records, on the illustrious Rex Manning Day. There is one surprisingly tender moment in this film, when Joe (LaPaglia) tells Deb (Tunney) that she's doing a good job, amidst the utter chaos and non sequitur that comprises the rest of the film. I'm not typically a fan of such haphazard storytelling, but this movie brings back such fond memories of the kind of movies I grew up with that I cannot ignore it. This movie is something else, that's for sure, but it contains a charm and fire you will remember, even if you aren't one of its cult followers.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112950/

Dead Man (1995)

1/5

Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man is one of the most uninteresting, meandering, meaningless movies I've seen since Truffaut's The Soft Skin. I sat there for two hours watching scenes transition to different scenes with the barest semblance of plot or purpose. The movie follows William Blake (Depp) as he makes his way from Cleveland to the West in the late 19th century. He gets mixed up in violence and must go on the run to save his life, but I think the title is meant to insinuate that he is already dead. People who like the movie will tell you it's about a man's transformation in the time of our country's transformation, but I think those people are just seeing stuff that isn't there. Or, perhaps, seeing the bits and pieces of stuff beneath all the garbage piled on top of it.

Johnny Depp kind of reminded me of Guy Pearce in this movie, and I mean that in a bad way. He has dead expressions and no depth. He sounds entirely uninterested in just about everything going on, even when he's supposed to be scared or excited. Regardless of whether his affect is intentional or not, it's simply boring and painful to watch. I don't even want to talk about the dialogue, because I'll just get upset. The script tries to be edgy and badass, but instead it's spoken by what sounds like bad student actors trying to be edgy and badass. Mix this bad acting (or bad directing, I'm honestly not sure which it is) with crappy special effects and cheesy old-time film techniques and you have an entirely laughable production. It's times like these I wish I had waited before burning an entire director's oeuvre until I knew I liked them.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112817/

Toy Story (1995)

5/5

Pixar's Toy Story is not the same movie I saw so many years ago. I remember much of the storyline (because of course the plot is still the same), but watching it from a more mature perspective opened my eyes to a lot of what I had either missed or ignored. The plot follows a collection of young Andy's toys who are constantly threatened to be replaced at every birthday and Christmas. Andy's favorite cowboy Woody (Hanks) is one such victim, being forsaken for the year's coolest space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Allen). Jealous, Woody plays a prank on Buzz that goes horribly wrong, the other toys band up against him for eliminating their new friend, and now Woody must save Buzz from the treacherous clutches of the evil neighbor Sid.

What surprised me on this viewing was just how dark this movie was. My understanding from IMDb's trivia page is that the producers wanted it to be edgy. They went down that path originally by writing Woody as an unlikeable sarcastic jerk (and there are some remnants of his unlikable qualities, despite Hanks's incredibly empathetic performance), but this final version is much more shocking. The toys in this world live to serve their master, to give him unconditional love regardless of whether he loves them back or throws them aside. These toys are voiced and animated as humans; how are we to respond when we see Sid explode army soldiers, rip off dolls' heads, and otherwise perform twisted chimeric experiments on the toys? The experience is surprisingly disturbing for a "family movie" and it is definitely edgy.

What stayed the same across these viewings was the animation, which is a real testament to the people working at Pixar. It's so easy for an animated film to look outdated 15 years in the future, but Toy Story does not endure such a fate. The animators took care to give it a unique aesthetic so that when you watch it 15 years in the future or 50 years in the future, you know it is meant to look exactly as it looks. It never becomes outdated, it only serves as a reminder of the style it helped create. The same can be said of the acting: the voice actors are recognizable even today, but they were chosen because of their acting ability, and that will shine through long into the future. They take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as you alternatively love and hate them, often from the subtlest of voice changes.

Toy Story is a fantastic movie that goes where few animated films have dared tread. Even today, 15 years later, it is rare to find as mature a family film as this one. Pixar has traditionally provided important adult thematics in films that appeal to younger audiences, and Toy Story is the start of it all. What an amazing and refreshing experience it is to watch this movie!

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114709/

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

4/5

While You Were Sleeping is a wonderfully light romantic comedy with just the right amount of emotion at the end to warm your heart. Sandra Bullock stars as the awkward fare lady for the Chicago (!) commuter rail. Peter Gallagher is the guy of her dreams who she sees take the train every day but has never talked to. One fateful morning, he falls on the tracks and she rescues him from an oncoming train. As he lies in a coma at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (!), she gets mistaken as his fiancée by the staff and by his charmingly dysfunctional family. Through a series of very unrealistic but incredibly funny twists, she is forced to maintain her guise until he wakes up. But that is not the only twist! After spending Christmas with the family, she meets coma guy's brother, Bill Pullman, and soon falls in love with him.

Shot extensively (if not entirely) in Chicago, the cinematography is an absolute treasure for Chicago lovers. The shot compositions themselves aren't that great, but they do have an amazing backdrop at which I stared joyfully in every scene. But what is really awesome about this movie is seeing the hospital in which I'm going to be doing rotations come July. (Well, I guess that's not entirely true--Passavant Pavilion no longer exists and all the buildings I'm going to actually be working in were erected post-1999--but still!) The acting by all was pitch perfect, the characters were quirky before it was hip to be quirky, and the writing was fun while the dialogue was funny. This movie comes with a lot of twists and turns and explores the topics of love and family expertly. Despite my overly enthusiastic praise for movies set in Chicago, While You Were Sleeping is a true treasure for any movie fan and a really enjoyable movie. You won't be disappointed.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114924/

Clueless (1995)

4/5

Clueless is a surprisingly entertaining teen comedy that manages to stand the test of time despite being entrenched in 90's culture, lingo, and fashion. (As opposed to Swingers, which is also entrenched in the 90's, but cannot quite escape its time period.) The plot follows the popular, affluent 16-year-old Cher (Silverstone) who feels compelled to help others, and does so by taking the new girl in school Tai (Murphy) under her wing. Her unrelated ex-step-brother Josh (Rudd) is also in town to help their shared litigator father (Hedaya) with a big case and is giving Cher the headache of a lifetime. As far as teen comedies go, I have to say that this is one of the best I've seen. I loved Can't Hardly Wait in high school, but Clueless, despite its slant to girls, is definitely better.

The movie is funny, no doubt about it. I found myself laughing far more than I thought I would. The dialogue is sharp and witty and there's little lingering or pausing for jokes, making the whole movie very appropriately paced. The plot was somewhat confusing at first, trying to get everybody's names and social statuses in check, but after that it was smooth sailing. What amazed me the most about this movie is that Alicia Silverstone's outfits and hair styles still look so good, despite her dressing very fashionably for the 90's. (Compare to old episodes of Friends of Seinfeld and you'll see what I'm talking about.) Technically, there was nothing impressive about the movie. The montages were a bit kitschy, especially at the end, but nothing too off-putting. All in all, a very appealing teen comedy and one that I think everyone in our age group should see.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/

Bad Boys (1995)

3/5

Michael Bay's Bad Boys tries to be many things and doesn't always succeed. The plot centers around cops Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as they attempt to regain a large amount of stolen heroin while simultaneously protecting Tea Leoni, a witness to a related murder. One part of the story involves a cheesy gimmick wherein Lawrence must pretend he's Smith, but it only serves to confuse the plot and add unfunny attempts at jokes. The dialogue was very poorly written. They attempted realistic back-and-forth arguing as you'd see in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Knocked Up. But it wasn't funny. Which just made it annoying. Only about half the action scenes are truly exciting; for the rest, we're just watching stuff happen. As the camera rotates around us. The technical aspects are pretty uninspired and unimpressive. The worst part is that it takes a long time to really get into the meat of the story, the funny jokes, and the thrilling action. You have to put up with half of the movie before you're really rewarded in any way. So, watch it at your own risk. Just don't expect too much out of it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112442/

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

3/5

Kicking and Screaming follows a group of friends during and following their college graduation. It unsurprisingly strikes a personal chord with me, and I felt very close to the characters and their situation. It managed to be emotional without being melodramatic, sentimental without being saccharine, hilarious without being ludicrous. I liked the low-key, realistic acting and down-to-earth yet poetic writing. I especially liked the open ending and thought it was the right move. The cinematography is so-so, the editing below average. It took me a while to realize that some events were taking place in the past, which was terribly confusing. All in all, an excellent movie to watch when you're nostalgic for the end of college.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0113537/

Smoke (1995)

3/5

Smoke is a mildly pleasing film with a mildly pleasing script that gives great actors mildly pleasing characters to play. It started off with potential, and every so often it would approach that potential and then pull back a little, as if afraid to take a risk. My favorite part was near the beginning, where William Hurt's character flips through a book of photographs taken at the same time every day of the same place as Harvey Keitel talks over the images. It was absolutely beautiful. The rest had snippets of genius, but nothing fulfilling.

The movie is a slice-of-life intertwining tale of the many people who interact with Harvey Keitel inside of and outside of his cigar and tobacco shop. Because there is no real main conflict, you are just pulled along, waiting for the next thing to happen without any expectations. Quite frankly, it gets a little boring. The editing sometimes felt amateurish and sometimes felt pretentious. Though I really liked some of the cinematography, most of it was rather bland and watery. All in all, it's not bad, but there's no real point in going out of your way to watch it.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0114478/

La Haine (1995)

4.9/5

La Haine is stunning, creative, artistic, beautiful, predictive, bleak, uncompromising, and provocative. The crisp black and white cinematography provides both a documentary feel and brings an intangible beauty to the roughness of the urban underbelly. The shot composition was masterful, the camera movement emotive. There is one shot that compares with Citizen Kane in its magic. The camera peers over Vincent's shoulder as he looks at himself in the mirror, then it continues moving forward over his shoulder until it's a straight-on close-up on his face. In the mirror. But where is the camera? This is just one aspect of the scene. I didn't even mention that he was quoting De Niro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, the cinematic definition of self-destructive, repetitive behavior leading to explosive violence. In so doing, Kassovitz not only fleshes out the character, but also questions the influence of both America and cinema (both of which are revisited later on) on the ubiquitous hate and violence in the film. There is great depth and meaning in such a superficially simple scene.

The messages in the movie were told from a unique perspective as metaphors or stories, which added to their weight because it made you stop and think. This movie asks a lot of bleak questions and answers many of them in the unfortunate affirmative. The story of the man falling down a 50-story building: As he passes each floor, he keeps telling himself, "So far, so good. So far, so good." But it's not the fall that matters. It's how you land. So, like Travis Bickle, the aggressive, rebellious youth continue their repetitive, self-destructive habits. But it's fine, 'cause they're still alive. But it's not the fall that matters. It's how they land. And eventually, they will land. Hate pushes against hate, but it's all good until it explodes. "Do you believe in God? That's the wrong question. Does God believe in us?" Are we capable of redemption, grace, and forgiveness? Or does hate just breed more hate? Unfortunately, Kassovitz thinks it's the latter. This movie is powerful and meaningful, but without hope.

Some scenes felt repetitive or drawn out. Even though I loved Kassovitz's central message and the metaphor of the falling man, its presence was a bit excessive and almost overbearing. The editing occasionally vexed me, but only slightly.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0113247/